Group wants Marion to encourage gun ownership

Published: Sunday, December 15, 2013 at 6:59 p.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, December 15, 2013 at 6:59 p.m.

Some local pro-gun activists are asking the County Commission to call on the head of every household in Marion County to own a firearm and stock up on ammunition.

Members of the Marion County Campaign for Liberty will appear at the commission's regular meeting on Tuesday to pitch a proposed resolution whereby the board would encourage gun ownership in every home.

Doing so, according to a draft of the resolution the group provided the board, would help with emergency preparedness and to promote the “safety, security and general welfare” of all county residents.

The document also urges those gun owners to be properly trained in the handling and storage of their weapons.

The group would also accommodate dissenters.

Exempted from the recommendation would be those heads of households who are prevented from owning a gun because of a mental or physical disability, those prohibited from doing so by law such as convicted felons, those who cannot afford a gun and those who “conscientiously oppose” keeping arms.

The group's documents note that their proposal is modeled after a local ordinance adopted by Kennesaw, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta with about 30,000 residents.

Heads of households there have been required to own guns since 1982.

Crime appears to be the group's main concern.

They note in the 10-page report justifying the proposed resolution that rates of violent crime, particularly for murder, are higher in places with stricter gun-control laws.

But crimes rates in general in Florida, and especially in Marion County, have been falling in recent years.

The proposed local law also mirrors a similar measure proffered to the Belleview City Commission in August 2009.

Proponents of the plan argued it would not only keep residents safer but would help the economy by informing businesses and consumers that Belleview was a safe place to work and shop.

The City Commission rejected the measure by a 4-1 vote.

Some in the majority maintained that a local law could not do more to help citizens protect themselves than what the Second Amendment already allowed.

The commission's vote at the time was sandwiched by a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned federal laws governing Washington, D.C.'s, ban on handguns and a 2010 decision that sunk a similar ban enacted by the city of Chicago.

According to reports earlier this year by The Huffington Post, interest in adopting such local ordinances rose after the massacre of 20 schoolchildren and six faculty members at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn, the first anniversary of which was marked on Saturday.

<p>Some local pro-gun activists are asking the County Commission to call on the head of every household in Marion County to own a firearm and stock up on ammunition.</p><p>Members of the Marion County Campaign for Liberty will appear at the commission's regular meeting on Tuesday to pitch a proposed resolution whereby the board would encourage gun ownership in every home.</p><p>Doing so, according to a draft of the resolution the group provided the board, would help with emergency preparedness and to promote the “safety, security and general welfare” of all county residents.</p><p>The document also urges those gun owners to be properly trained in the handling and storage of their weapons.</p><p>The group would also accommodate dissenters.</p><p>Exempted from the recommendation would be those heads of households who are prevented from owning a gun because of a mental or physical disability, those prohibited from doing so by law such as convicted felons, those who cannot afford a gun and those who “conscientiously oppose” keeping arms.</p><p>The group's documents note that their proposal is modeled after a local ordinance adopted by Kennesaw, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta with about 30,000 residents.</p><p>Heads of households there have been required to own guns since 1982.</p><p>Crime appears to be the group's main concern.</p><p>They note in the 10-page report justifying the proposed resolution that rates of violent crime, particularly for murder, are higher in places with stricter gun-control laws.</p><p>But crimes rates in general in Florida, and especially in Marion County, have been falling in recent years.</p><p>The proposed local law also mirrors a similar measure proffered to the Belleview City Commission in August 2009.</p><p>Proponents of the plan argued it would not only keep residents safer but would help the economy by informing businesses and consumers that Belleview was a safe place to work and shop.</p><p>The City Commission rejected the measure by a 4-1 vote.</p><p>Some in the majority maintained that a local law could not do more to help citizens protect themselves than what the Second Amendment already allowed.</p><p>The commission's vote at the time was sandwiched by a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned federal laws governing Washington, D.C.'s, ban on handguns and a 2010 decision that sunk a similar ban enacted by the city of Chicago.</p><p>According to reports earlier this year by The Huffington Post, interest in adopting such local ordinances rose after the massacre of 20 schoolchildren and six faculty members at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn, the first anniversary of which was marked on Saturday.</p><p>Municipal leaders in towns in Colorado, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Utah had adopted either must-own ordinances or laws simply encouraging gun ownership, the online news outlet noted.</p><p>Those measures followed the examples set by Kennesaw, Ga., and Greenleaf, Idaho, where gun ownership has been officially recommended since 2006.</p><p>Voters in Byron, Maine, rejected a mandatory gun ownership law.</p><p><i>Contact Bill Thompson at 867-4117 or at bill.thompson@ocala.com.</i></p>